Shake-up 'to keep racing clean'
A top-ranking FBI official has been appointed security chief at the Hong Kong Jockey Club as part of a sweeping reorganisation aimed at keeping racing clean.
Timothy McNally, 51, the FBI's No 2 in California, will take up a position senior to the club's security controller David Twynham.
Mr McNally, whose official title will be director of security, starts work on April 26 and will be answerable only to Jockey Club chief executive Lawrence Wong Chi-kwong.
Mr Wong said last night that as Hong Kong racing moved into the international sphere, it needed an upgraded security division headed by a man with global law enforcement experience.
He described the selection process as a 'global search' and said candidates from Australia, Britain, North America and Hong Kong had been interviewed.
Mr McNally, who has a background in setting up organised crime and drug investigation units, will have the task of transforming the club's security department into a division with more power, more resources and a greater role in club affairs generally. The appointment follows a series of scandals involving alleged race-fixing and telephone tapping surrounding the club.
It also comes as fears over the spread of illegal gambling mount and as Jockey Club profits fall in the face of illicit and overseas betting.
The Government is reviewing the outdated Gambling Ordinance following a series of raids on Macau Jockey Club service centres, which authorities allege may have broken the law.
A club statement said Mr McNally had a solid background in dealing with a 'complex array of security issues from information protection to security operations to intelligence'.
Jockey Club spokesman Wilson Cheng Kwok-ming said: 'The reorganisation plans have been under discussion for several months, but as far as specifics on staff and resources are concerned that will be a matter for Mr McNally when he comes in.
'This is a signal of our determination to keep racing in Hong Kong clean,' Mr Cheng said. 'We are not only determined to increase our security capabilities but also to act as a deterrent.' Mr McNally is assistant director-in-charge of the FBI field office in Los Angeles.
He was previously an organised crime supervisor and inspector-in-charge at FBI headquarters in Washington DC. He was also appointed by the US Attorney-General to start up the National Drug Intelligence Centre at the US Department of Justice as its deputy director.
Mr McNally will be employed on a three-year renewable contract and will move to Hong Kong within weeks with his wife and three children.
Mr Cheng denied an outside appointment had been sought because of fears an insider might not be 'clean'.
'That's not the case. He has been appointed because he is the man we feel is best for the job.'
